Way down: Loss is Miami's lowest-scoring playoff game ever

Giving it away: 19 turnovers let Hawks pile up the points

Back in the postseason for the first time in two seasons, the Heat remains in search of its first playoff victory in three.

Coming undone in the first half against a bigger, more athletic, more cohesive opponent, the Heat fell 90-64 Sunday night to the Hawks in the opener of its best-of-seven first-round NBA playoff series. It was the lowest-scoring game in franchise playoff history.

"It seemed like we were slow in the mind," coach Erik Spoelstra said. "They came out with a great intensity and we just have to match that."

In many ways, the Heat realized its worst fears in the loss, with its turnovers up, its 3-point shooting down and teammates serving as little more than spectators to Dwyane Wade.

While Wade finished with 19 points, he was pestered into eight turnovers, one shy of the Heat postseason record, with the Hawks at times making him their sole defensive focus.

At times, Wade seemed to try to do too much. At other times, such as when he took only two shots in playing the entire third quarter, he put the onus on his flailing teammates.

"I'm criticized if I take all the shots," Wade said. "I'm criticized if I don't."

Spoelstra had attempted to open the floor for Wade by giving forward James Jones just his second start of the season. Instead, the Heat shot 3 of 13 on 3-pointers in the first two quarters, on the way to 4 of 23, as Atlanta bolted to a 59-39 halftime lead.

The outside ineptitude was just part of the Heat's initial ineptitude. Another factor was its 12 first-half turnovers, which Atlanta converted into 18 points. The Heat closed with 19.

But the ultimate indignity was Hawks forward Josh Smith running out for dramatic alley-oop dunks in transition, some of them so spectacular that his head nearly went through the rim in one direction before the ball slammed down in the other. Smith finished with 23 points on 9-of-14 shooting and 10 rebounds.

"He was just running right by us," Spoelstra said.

Smith's jams had Heat power forward Udonis Haslem livid during one second-quarter timeout, railing first at assistant coach David Fizdale and later at his teammates.

"I just saw it slipping," he said. "I think we froze."

Little appeared to go according to design for the Heat, with Spoelstra uncharacteristically animated during another first-half timeout.

The Heat was all over the place with its lineup rotations, with Michael Beasley at one point cast at small forward and 6-foot-5 Daequan Cook at another time featured in that defensive role against 6-9 Marvin Williams. Jamaal Magloire did not even play, even though starting center Jermaine O'Neal finished with just five points and two rebounds in 22 minutes.

The Heat's playoff low had been 66 points against Detroit in the 2005 Eastern Conference finals.

Spoelstra entered acknowledging he wasn't sure where his team was headed, with the Heat possessing a far different look than when it was swept in the first round in 2007 by the Bulls and then missed the postseason last year with a league-worst 15-67 record.

Those failures came with Pat Riley as coach, with Riley this time taking in the game from the Philips Arena stands in his role as team president. The Heat's most recent playoff victory remains the Game 6 victory in Dallas that gave it the 2006 NBA championship.

"We've got to let this go," Wade said. "You learn from it and move on."